With Substation Repaired, NJ Transit Makes a Step Forward

Amtrak finished repairs to a flood-damaged power substation in Kearny, N.J., on Friday, clearing the railroad to run a full schedule for the holiday week and eliminating one obstacle to restoration of NJ Transit service into New York City.

Starting Monday morning, NJ Transit will be operating about 90 % of its normal peak period service into New York Penn Station, Gov. Chris Christie said.

The substation was knocked out when Kearny flooded during superstorm Sandy. The same floods also heavily damaged nearly one-third of NJ Transit’s rail cars and damaged its rail operations center at the low-lying site.

Elsewhere, floodwaters knocked out low-lying commuter rail tracks, plunging the New Jersey commuter rail system into chaos. After days in which commuters struggled to crowd onto buses for the ride into and out of Manhattan, service from the west side of the Hudson River continued to return to normal.

NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder said that the restoration of the substation will help the agency increase service on trains that run along the Northeast Corridor.

“This is good news,” Snyder said about the substation repairs.

Service will run at nearly normal levels on several rail lines this weekend. The Atlantic City, Main/Bergen County and Passaic Valley lines will operate on normal weekend schedules. The Northeast Corridor line will run on a “near normal” schedule, with trains continuing to skip Jersey Avenue, according to NJ Transit.

The North Jersey Coast Line and Gladstone branch continue to be suspended because of significant storm damage, according to NJ Transit.

With some aspects of the system returning to more regular service, NJ Transit canceled emergency bus service along six routes.

The service took commuters to ferries that connected to Manhattan. Snyder said that demand for the buses had fallen as riders returned to their normal NJ Transit rail routes. But on Monday, the service will run for the first time along the Gladstone branch as work continues there.

Amtrak’s six tunnels through New York City — two from New Jersey to Penn Station, and four between Manhattan and Queens — were all back in operation by Sunday night, a spokesman said. The railroad will run its usual complement of service during the Thanksgiving week and beyond, a spokesman said. The railroad urged travelers to avoid crowds on Wednesday by traveling earlier in the week if possible.

Also Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the second tube of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel between Brooklyn and the Battery would return to service for regular traffic, excluding trucks, on Monday morning.